Louisiana Voice

Paul Mainieri won 1,501 games against 774 losses in a 39-year coaching career, a winning percentage of .660.

Those 1,501 wins made him the winningest active coach in Division I and only the fifth coach to win 1,500 games and win a national championship.

But it wasn’t enough.

He took his Tiger teams to the College World Series five times in his 15 years at LSU. LSU won the 2009 College World Series in dramatic fashion by defeating the University of Texas Longhorns, 11-4 and made a strong run in 2017 before losing to Florida in the title game.

But it wasn’t enough.

Since that 2009 title year, there have been too few Alex Bregmans, Leon Landrys, Jared Mitchells, Aaron Nolas, Mikie Mahtooks, Louis Colemans, DJ LeMahieus or this year’s phenom, first baseman Tre’ Morgan.

There has been little evidence of the gregarious enthusiasm of Landry, Mahtook or Mitchell, an emotional trait that, combined with considerable talent, propelled that 2009 team to the national championship. Instead, there has been a parade of assorted injuries to key players, most significantly at the all-important pitcher position.

Since arriving at LSU from Notre Dame in 2007, Mainieri’s Tiger teams have compiled a record of 637-282-3, a staggering winning percentage of .693. That consistency would win any division in the Major Leagues.

But at LSU, it wasn’t enough.

This is a program that, since the arrival of legendary coach Skip Bertman, is used to winning it all.

In 18 years, Bertman won more national championships (5) than Mainieri’s SEC regular season championships (4). Bertman won as many national titles as Mainieri’s total CWS appearances (5). Bertman won seven SEC titles and his .754 winning percentage in NCAA baseball tournament play is the best ever in college baseball.

Yes, it’s unfair to compare Mainieri to Bertman. I know that. But whether it’s fair or not, fans, who are notoriously fickle, do just that. Always have, always will.

Probably the biggest factor that makes it unfair is the evolution of baseball at the college level since Bertman came to LSU from Miami way back in 1984.

What was once the undisputed domain of the Big Three – Southern Cal, Arizona State, and the University of Texas – is now spread out over the map. We have seen schools like Fresno State, Coastal Carolina (remember them? They trashed LSU in a Super Regional en route to a CWS title), and Rice shoving their way into the CWS title spotlight and the center of power and consistency in the SEC has shifted from Baton Rouge to Nashville.

Yes, Mainieri has failed to measure up to the high bar set by Bertman and yes, LSU fans are spoiled on winning, so any coach that has the misfortune to follow Bertman (there was one coach, Smoke Laval, between Bertman and Mainieri, and he was doomed from the get-go) was certain to be under enormous pressure.

The late hall of fame basketball coach Ken Loeffler once said, “There are only two kinds of coaches – those who have been fired, and those who will be fired.”

Paul Mainieri knows what Loeffler meant.

Oh, he said all the right things when he made his “retirement” ANNOUNCEMENT. He has not been well, he said. He has suffered growing discomfort in his neck following a disc replacement and spinal fusion, he said. But the pain has remained, he said, affecting the way in which he has been able to coach “for the last couple of years.”

No one is questioning his description of the pain he has endured. I have had two neck surgeries similar to his and three lumbar surgeries and my back and neck pain also persists, though it much improved over the pre-surgery pain in each of the five times I went under the laser. Still, it is a nagging pain that’s with you constantly and severely restricts your activity.

But Mainieri knows that athletes play with pain all the time. Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams are two prime examples and the numbers they put up over their careers are most impressive. Willis Reed led the Knicks to an NBA title on one leg. And what baseball fan can forget the performance of Curt Schilling in 2014? You’d think a coach could certainly do his job while withstanding pain. A high school coach I knew coached his basketball team while dying of cancer.

The neck surgery was the reason given but it was not the reason for Mainieri’s departure, according to an individual close to the story out at LSU.

But Mainieri played along like the team player he is, like the class act he is.

LouisianaVoice’s sources say that he was told some time ago that it was time for him to go.

Hello, Ken Loeffler.

So, rather than make a scene, he went along even though there were three years remaining on his $1.125 million per year contract.

No one has said so, but it’s more than a little likely that the TAF was involved in some sort of financial inducement in order to convince Mainieri to go along with this silent coup.

And Mainieri is a gentleman and, regrettably, it seems that his sort of personality doesn’t fit in with the coaching fraternity at LSU anymore. He has had no restraining orders filed against him. He has had no barroom encounters. He is a fatherly type – not the kind to try and lure young women to his apartment. Nor has he been accused of recruiting violations or of covering up improprieties within his program which, by the way, also has a pretty impressive graduation percentage among his players, especially when compared to football and basketball.